


something in the summer air

by dreamgorl



Category: South Park
Genre: summery fic, tweek is unschooled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-05-28 11:52:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6327793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamgorl/pseuds/dreamgorl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Craig Tucker has lived in this everyone-knows-everyone beach town his whole life. Tweek has only just arrived.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. breeze

Craig dug his toes into the sand and frowned at the brown-haired boy beside him. "Clyde, what the fuck." Said-brown-haired boy was cackling at a ' _beautiful_ ' rendition of the male genitalia that he had made with sand. " _What_ , don't you think it's accurate?"

Craig wondered why he was friends with him as he sighed. "No, Clyde, and if it looks that way to you, please go to the doctor." Clyde continued cackling and he kicked some saltwater at Craig. "Dude, holy shit!" Craig yelled as he jumped up and pushed Clyde into the water. Clyde yelped as he fell and then pouted at Craig, lackluster-ly flailing his arms around in the water. "Why do you hate me, Craigy?" He said with a whiny tone. Craig instantly turned on his heels and started walking back to his house, warm breeze hitting his body and sand flying behind him.

"Craig! Craig come back! I'm sorry!" Clyde called in the distance, "I still love you!"

Craig covered his face with his hand and snickered. "I fucking hate you, Clyde."

He made his way across the rickety wooden bridge leading back to the scalding concrete streets and pastel homes with paint chipping off of them. The ground was hot beneath his feet but it was bearable because he was used to it at this point. He had 16 years of experience with this life -- and of course, sometime's he wondered what it'd be like to live somewhere else, but he was content with it. With the sun warming up his back and the sand everywhere. The melting popsicles and the everyone-knows-everyone.

He couldn't say it was the best, because he'd never known anything else -- but it was pretty damn great.

He made his way across the street and up the steps to his home, pushing open the creaky screen door with his shoulder (the front door was pretty much always open) and into the house lit up by sunlight. He heard his little sister laughing with her best friend in the kitchen, and he already knew his parent's weren't home because they were most likely tending to their antique shop.

He walked into the kitchen and nodded at his little sister Ruby and her best friend, Karen. Karen smiled a toothy grin at him, and Ruby looked at her with disgust. "Ew, Karen."

Karen frowned at her but then laughed. "Chill out, brah."

Craig wasn't really paying attention to them -- he was just rummaging through the refrigerator looking for some cold beverage. Ruby grabbed Karen's arm and ran out of the room with her. "Bye, Craig!" Karen yelled. Craig didn't look back at them, just waved a hand towards their general direction. He pulled a cold soda out and popped it open, and he really was satisfied by the ' _tssk_ ' noise it made.

He settled down in a stool at the counter and thought to himself, 'Yeah. This really is the best.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aha! i wanted to write a summery fic for craig and tweek. we'll see where it goes. don't worry, tweek is coming and so are other characters. sorry if anybody seems super duper ooc, i had this idea and i thought i'd roll with it. just kinda gonna have fun with it. please leave comments! i wanna know what you guys think!


	2. cove

Tweek was walking back home from the coffee shop just down the street, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel free. It was stupid because it was just a short distance from his home, and he probably walked to this particular coffee shop like two times a day, but every single time it made him feel liberated and important.

He'd also be lying if he said it didn't give him anxiety, because all of the people walking on the sidewalk at the same time was freaky, their voices an almost-symphony, and the traffic was insane. Like, right next to him there was at least 10 moving giant-death-machines, all of them loud and buzzing. And some motorcycles. He really didn't trust motorcycles. His thoughts were full of images of them veering off the road and hitting him or someone in front of him.

And by the time he calms down, rationalizes his thoughts -- he's already made it to his apartment complex. He walks through the revolving doors and nods at the receptionist, who nods back at him. If he was feeling energized he would go up the flight of stairs to the first floor which is where his family's apartment was, but he wasn't. So he walked into the elevator which happened to already be waiting at the lobby and pressed the button to get to his floor. And even after 16 years of this, the little _jump_ before the elevator swiftly makes it way up makes his heart race.

Reaching the floor, the hall was totally empty. He found this made him uneasy but also nostalgic in some way, memories of skipping down the hall and making racket coming back to him. He unlocked his apartment door and quietly made his way inside.

He discovered his parent's sitting side by side at the kitchen table, looking nervous. He wondered if something was wrong with his mother -- she was pregnant, on her third trimester, so she was due sometime soon. His stomach tightened and he dropped his bag on the ground slowly, eyes flickering between both of them. " _What_? Oh my god, what's wrong?!" His mom cringed and looked at the ceiling. "We have something to... _tell_ you, honey."

His mind buzzed at the use of 'honey'. He loved his parents, really, he did. But they weren't close necessarily. His dad was more of a roommate than a dad, and his mother was..well, he was pretty close to his mom. And that wasn't to say that his dad was a terrible person or anything, because he was his dad anyway. He just didn't really _know_ him.

"We're going to move." His dad said, and his mom quickly turned and glared at him as if to say ' _really_?' Tweek's mind went blank.

"What?"

His dad cleared his throat and his mom shuffled in her seat. "We want to be more of a family. We need a bigger house with the baby coming, and quite honestly, we're just _tired_ of the city. We found a beautiful home by the beach and we think you'll really like it." His mom said, "and we really thought of you too honey. We think it'd be nice for you to have some new scenery, some new experiences."

His heart wouldn't stop, and his breathing sped up. What, this was it? Now they want to be a family -- 16 years, and only now they want to be a family. And beaches -- the weather was so temperamental near beaches. He could drown. His soon-to-be little sibling could drown. Oh God.

After a moment of staring at them, he nodded, resigned, and picked his bag up off the floor, walking slowly to his room. There was boxes everywhere already. Albeit, they were empty, but soon they'd be filled. Of all the memories of this apartment that he grew up in. And his room -- his tiny room, with photos and sticky notes all over the walls and fairy-lights. It was filled with boxes too. He heard his parents murmuring in the other room but it was like he was on auto-pilot. He started picking up things and putting them in boxes, running his fingers along everything. The cool breeze flowed in from his open window and sunlight filtered through.

He knew, at least, that he'd survive this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i always forget that when i start writing, at a certain point all of my own words look garbled to me and i can't tell if they're any good or not. whoops! next chapter will be longer I promise :). please leave reviews!


	3. arrival

They had finally made it -- after one excruciatingly long roadtrip, they made it. Tweek narrowed his eyes at the harsh sunlight when he stepped out of the car, and gasped at how _hot_ the concrete was on his bare feet. "Jesus!" He yelped and grabbed his sandals from the car, slipping them onto his feet.

The air smelled like a mixture of petrichor and saltwater -- fresh -- and he inhaled deeply. He was upset when they first told him about moving, but then he understood where his parents had been coming from. They couldn't raise another child in a tiny apartment like that. So, even though he was still sad, he accepted the fact that this was his home now.

Plus, maybe his parents were right -- maybe this _was_ a good thing for him.

He stretched his limbs and sighed, looking at the large light-blue home in front of him. It was a little beat up, a little worn. But it looked like it could be a home, and that was good enough.

"Hi!" He jumped as he heard a voice yell, and looked the direction they had just driven to see a curly-blonde haired girl bouncing over to them. "H-hey?" He said as the girl approached him. He checked to see where his parents had gone, and they seemed to have already gone inside. 

"I'm Bebe, are you moving in here?" She said, smiling at him brightly. He took in the details of her -- She was a little chubby, curvy, and she was gorgeous. Like, why-isn't-she-a-model-already gorgeous. She had sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. "Yeah, I am. M-my name's Tweek." He said, and smiled back at her. "How old are you, Tweek?" She suddenly had this light in her eyes. "I'm 16." She grinned at him. "Me too!"

"I live really close by, we should hang out sometime. I have to go though, I was watching a movie." She nodded at him and then ran back the way she had came from, and he was left standing there absolutely clueless as to what had happened.

Had he just made a friend? Jesus, she was a _really_ 'to the point' kind of person. 

He walked up the creaking wooden porch steps to his home, stood outside the door for a moment taking in the view and the breeze, and then walked inside.

  
...

  
His room was on the second floor, and the staircase was right in the entry room. He cautiously walked up the steps, mostly because they looked old and he didn't really trust them, and when he made it to the top he stared at the four closed doors down the hall. He remembered his parent's telling him his room was going to have a bay window, so he looked in each of the rooms and found that his was the room at the end of the hall.

It was exponentially bigger than his last room, and the light streaming in through the window was beautiful. Some of his boxes were already on the floor, but he decidedly sat on the bay window and looked out.

The view was beautiful, he could see some of the beach, some forest and someone else's house. He was staring at the forest when he noticed someone walk out of the house -- a tall guy, with messy black hair. 

He wondered, because of the fact that the first two people he's seen here have been very attractive, if there was some kind of standard for how attractive you have to be to live here. He shrugged the thought away and wondered if it was creepy that he was watching the guy, who was wearing board shorts and a blue t-shirt. 

And then -- the guy looked up at him suddenly, and they held eye contact for a few seconds until Tweek felt uncomfortable and jumped up, dashing across the room. Breathing heavily, he wondered why that felt so weird and intimate; he's made plenty of eye contact with strangers before. But _this_ felt intense, harsh. He slowly walked back to the window and saw the guy was gone.

He didn't see him anywhere, so he figured that the guy walked into the forest. 

He settled back down into the window seat and sighed deeply, wondering what was going to happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah. still have no idea how words work honestly.. and i'm probably gonna say this like every chapter just because i feel very inspired whenever i get them, please leave reviews!


	4. spellbinding

Tweek suddenly woke, eyes searching the ceiling wildly, trying to remember where he was. This has happened for the entire past week since he arrived at his new home -- every morning, panic of not recognizing the room he's in, only to remember that it's his room. He sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and scanned the room, trying to see if anything changed.

There was still a few boxes -- or maybe a lot, but most of them were empty. His room now was very simple whereas his previous room had been cluttered, but that was mostly because of how small it was and how much stuff he's accumulated over the years. He'd spent the last week pulling things out of boxes and arranging them.

He was only slightly exhausted by it.

He got out of bed shakily, walking across the room to the doorway and listening to see if his parents were awake. He heard them chatting in the kitchen, so he walked across the hallway and down the creaky stairs that he's already started getting used to (but still is wary of).

The house was dusty still, so when he passed by the windows with the sun filtering in, he saw all the little flecks of it sparkling around. He couldn't help but run a hand through it.

He listened to the pat pat noise of his feet as he walked across the wooden floorboards, and then waited for his parents to notice him when he walked into the kitchen. His mom looked up and smiled at him. "Mornin' baby." She said cheerily.

"Hey, ma." He walked to the fridge and grabbed a water bottle, drinking some of it and then setting it down on the counter.

He tucked some of his hair behind his ear and looked around the room, lost. His mom seemed to notice this and set her magazine down on the counter by a glass of water, and Tweek noticed the light halo-ing around her from the window behind her.

"Hey, why don't you go....explore the area?" She suggested.

Tweek looked past her and out the window, where he saw the forest. "Y-yeah, that's a good idea." She grinned at him.

"I'm going to go organize my room some m-more, though." He said, and she nodded at him. He looked at his dad one more time, who was apparently lost in some newspaper, and so he turned back and walked to his room.  
...

It was 3:30 PM and Tweek was exhausted with organizing -- he was left with only one box, but he couldn't get any of his picture frames to stay put. They just kept falling off the wall and he was terrified that there would be shattered glass everywhere, so he decided to just leave it for now and go 'explore' the area like his mom suggested earlier.

His hair kept falling in his face so he grabbed a single bobby pin and pinned one side back. His dad always stared at him with this unbelieving look whenever he did this, but he did it anyway.

He made his way down the stairs for the third time today (the second time was to eat breakfast), and grabbed his sandals at the bottom, slipping them on his feet. He looked around to see if his parents were home, but he didn't see them.

He opened the door, which he's noticed is really light, and then pushed open the screen door. The air had a chill today, but he didn't think a jacket was necessary.

He walked around his house to the back and wondered why he didn't go out his back door. Guess it didn't matter now.

His mom was sitting on the porch with sunglasses on, and he couldn't tell if she was napping or not. "M-mom?" She jumped up at him speaking and smiled.

"Going out?" She asked, and pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head.

"Y-yeah, I was going to the forest." He said, and the clouds covered the sun for a moment leaving everything looking vaguely gloomy. "Okay, can you be back by at least 6:30?"

He nodded at her and she nodded back, and then put her sunglasses back on. He wondered briefly where his dad was, but shook the thought away. He walked towards the forest.

At the line where the forest began and the little stone path leading to it stopped, there was a little canopy of leaves and twigs. The inside of the forest seemed lush and green, almost fairy tale-esque, compared to everything before it. Looking at it, it seemed as if it was an entry into another world.

Something heavy was hanging in the air. Something magic. He could feel the electricity of it in his fingertips and through his veins. And the second he walked into the forest -- it felt as though he could burst.

Jesus Christ.

"Hello?" He called quietly, just to see if anybody was in the forest already. Maybe the pretty girl with blonde hair, or maybe the boy with the blue t-shirt.

But he didn't receive a reply, so he decided to continue walking. There was a path, so he followed it. The forest was brambly and seemingly infinite, and he wondered how long the path was.

He still felt as thought he could float above everything, and he heard the waves rolling and crashing against each other in the distance. He smelled the crisp air and listened closely to the way the trees were rustling with the slight breeze. It all seemed fake, like something that he was watching in a movie but not really experiencing.

But he still felt the tingling in his fingertips.

After a while, which didn't feel like a really long time but he seemed to have lost all concept of it in the forest, he broke through the trees onto the beach. The sand climbed onto his sandals and brushed against his feet.

And in the distance, he saw a boy sitting on a large rock. The wind blowing his black hair all around, billowing in his blue t-shirt. The clouds were darkening.

"H-hey!" He called out to the boy, and for some reason he was worried that he would float away. And he wasn't sure who it was that he was worried would float away -- himself or the boy?

Could they save each other if it did happen?

The boy's head flickered up towards Tweek and their eyes locked for a moment. He could see the recognition in his eyes. The boy slowly stepped off the rock and they began to walk towards each other, and Tweek hadn't even noticed his feet were moving until the boy was only three feet away.

They stopped, and stared at eachother, and the boy's gaze was critical. Something even heavier was hanging around them and Tweek wasn't sure how he was standing. The wind was whipping around them and the sand was flying around their feet.

"I'm Craig." The boy -- Craig, said. He didn't move at all.

"Tweek." Tweek replied, and he broke the eye contact -- and he didn't know if he was imagining it, but the wind seemed to calm down.

Craig looked at him, seemed to almost be studying him. "What are you doing here?"

"I was...checking out the forest. I just moved in." Craig's eyes seemed to widen for a moment, but then he went back to looking intense.

Tweek shuffled his feet around for a moment and looked at the sky. "I don't know if I'm weird but, the forest felt--" Craig cut him off with, "magic."

Tweek looked at Craig again, and they just watched each other. The clouds seemed to part and a ray of light shone on the beach.

"What were you doing out here?" Tweek asked, and Craig slowly lifted one of his arms a little bit which held something Tweek hadn't noticed. A sketchpad.

Were you sketching the forest?" He asked, and Craig nodded. "Can I see?"

As Craig lifted it up, Tweek's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh shit, I have to go." He said, panicked. "I'm really sorry. Show me sometime?" Tweek asked with hope in his voice, because he wanted to see this strange boy that felt the magic of the forest again.

"Okay, Tweek." Craig said, and Tweek smiled at him.

Tweek lifted a hand and ran for the forest, bursting through the trees and feeling as though he was flying. When he left the forest, he didn't feel as though he was made of magic anymore, but he felt like maybe, for a moment, he had been a part of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back at it again with writing and avoiding all of my responsibilities! i might not be able to write or post for a few days :/ as always...please leave reviews!!


	5. do you want to go to the seaside

_Jesus Christ_.

To say that Tweek's day had been bad would be an understatement -- it had been the _absolute_ worst. Firstly, his mother had been sleeping so much lately. And sure that was great, because she needed the rest, but his dad did next to nothing in the house so every single chore was his essentially -- and he was exhausted.

All he'd wanted to do that day he got home from the beach was to see the boy again. Or to walk in the forest so that he could feel that magical, carefree feeling again. But he hadn't gotten the chance to yet because of this.

And secondly, his father was driving him up the wall. Honestly. 'Tweek, you aren't doing that right', 'Tweek, what are you even trying to do'. Like, if I'm obviously not doing it right and you know everything why don't you do it?

He was just tired of everything. And today was the absolute worst day because his own mom, the only person he trusted in his home at this moment, had gotten mad at him. It was over something stupid -- like he didn't wash a mug well enough or something -- but she told him that he should leave the house for a little while.

So he did.

He walked the little stone path to the forest, and felt that somehow nostalgic feeling of magic filling his veins.

...

Craig's day has been shit.

God-fucking- _dammit_ , he just couldn't stand it. His friends were idiots, his parents were nosy and his sister wouldn't leave him the hell alone.

It had started off fine enough, he woke up and walked down to the kitchen to eat an orange. Sure, a _little_ bit of the juice had gone into his eye when he peeled it, and maybe that was a warning sign for his day to come, but he'd shrugged it off. Oranges do that occasionally.

And then he spilled his water everywhere, which he had to mop up because it wasn't like when you accidentally drop an ice cube on the floor and push it under the fridge discreetly with your foot -- it was everywhere. But he did consider it an achievement that he didn't spill it on any fabric, because that would have been a bitch considering his mom probably would have killed him on the spot. It wasn't like it would have _ruined_ anything but she would have anyway.

And then, Clyde came over without any warning and asked if he wanted to hang out for a while. Craig agreed and they strolled out, walking down the hot pavement to the beach. It was sunny but he could see some clouds rolling in -- cumulonimbus, even, and the air felt thick around him.

And Clyde _somehow_ tripped him; he wasn't positive if it was an accident or not, but regardless he went skidding across the ground and his knee was wrecked. Clyde freaked out and overreacted as usual, practically screaming at him asking if he was okay. Craig just stood up, flipped him off, and walked slowly back to his house.

And when he got there, he just barely caught his mother slowly opening his sketchbook -- which, okay, what the fuck. That was an _invasion_ of his _privacy_ and he would _abso-fucking-lutely_ not stand for this. "Mom. What the hell." She jumped at his words and raised an eyebrow. " _What?_ And language, Craig." She said, the last part more of an afterthought.

"Can you," He started, pulling the sketchbook from her hands, "not go through my sketchbooks. Ever." She frowned at him and put her hands on her hips.

"Fine, fine. You just never show us!" She said, and he bit his cheek and walked up the stairs to his room, grabbing his pencils from his desk and attempting to find a blank page in his sketchbook.

His latest sketch had been of the boy with floaty, blonde hair at the beach. Tweek -- that was his name. He closed his door and sat down at his desk, staring at the page and trying to will something in his head. Something that inspired him.

But he could only think of the boy. And he honestly felt kind of..creepy, with how he drew him and Tweek didn't even know it. So he just sat there staring at the blank page, thinking of him, and _god_ \-- he'd only met him once, just _once_ , but somehow he was already _so_ into him.

Maybe it was that there wasn't that many boys here -- it was such a tiny town, but it wasn't like he'd ever actually been into anyone anyway. So this was something new. Being so infatuated with someone. Especially a basically-stranger.

And he didn't know if he'd see him again -- and what if he was a terrible human being? His mind was swirling, going faster and faster, and he needed to calm down because he was thinking about way too much, way too fast, and this kid was _only_ a stranger.

His door clicked open, whoever it was didn't knock, and it was Ruby being loud and obnoxious already. "So _ANYWAY_ , I'm _SURE_ Craig will let us borrow his art supplies." She practically screamed as she walked in, and he knew that she wasn't being _that_ loud or obnoxious on purpose; any other day he would have been fine with this, but his day had been so bad that he literally just could not take one more thing.

"No." He said, standing up suddenly and practically sending his chair flying. It scraped across the floor loudly and Ruby looked at him with widened eyes. " _What_?"

"No, you cannot borrow any of my things, because I am leaving now." He said curtly, and then breezed past her, sketchbook and pencils in tow. She stood in the doorway watching him, mouth agape, and Karen just watched him with a dreamy look in her eyes. Or she was looking at Ruby.

_..._

_He was floating, floating, floating through the trees again._

_..._

Tweek was sitting on a rock, one of the many large rocks scattered around this section of the beach. This hidden paradise. The wind was whipping around wildly and there was some dense, puffy clouds in the sky -- he was so intrigued by them. They looked so surreal, and he wished he had the words to describe them. The waves were crashing against each other loudly, and though he couldn't hear them approaching he could _feel_ the presence behind him.

"Hi." They said, and it was Craig. Tweek quickly turned around and grinned at Craig.

_..._

Craig's heart may have skipped a beat.

...

"I didn't think I would see you." Tweek said as he made some space on the rock for Craig. The pinkish tint in the sky, coupled with the darkness, cast a purple glow over everything.

Craig bit his lip and slid onto the rock, looking at the water instead of Tweek. "I've had a shitty day." He admitted, and he knew he probably wouldn't have come here if he hadn't.

Tweek looked at his own hands for a moment and then looked at Craig. "Me too."

Craig looked at Tweek and held up his sketchbook. "I brought it." Tweek's eyes seemed to sparkle and Craig kind of wished he had an infinite amount of sketchbook's that he could pull out of nowhere, just to see his eyes do that forever.

Craig hadn't been thinking about how close they were sitting until now -- but he suddenly felt dizzy, and like maybe this was some kind of dream; he'd wake up in his plain room any moment now. But he felt dizzy, and a sort of _pull_ in his stomach, so he just decided that he needed to do something other than think for once.

"Can I see?" Tweek asked, and Craig was so happy he did, because he felt vaguely like he was near death in that moment.

He held up his sketchbook and listened to the waves crashing against each other before he opened it. It was still light out enough to see things clearly, thankfully, but the darkness the clouds brought cast an eerie shadow over everything.

The first page was something he'd done a while ago; it was based on a photo that he had of himself and some of his friends at the beach when they were a little younger. One of their parents had taken it from behind them without their knowledge, so it had Clyde and Token tossing sand at each other and laughing, and Craig and Bebe just staring at the water like there was something more in it.

Something secret.

He never had a thing for Bebe. He always thought that something was wrong with him, because he knew that she was very attractive and she was a wonderful person, but no matter how hard he actually tried to feel something, he never could. Tweek studied the art which was done with mostly watercolors.

" _T-that's so amazing_." He said, and Craig could tell he meant it. He felt warmth blossom in his stomach.

"Seriously, I can't believe it. It's _so_ _good_." Tweek continued, and he sounded like he was still talking but he had put his hand on Craig's forearm and suddenly the air was electric; and then he realized that Tweek wasn't still talking, there was a humming all around them and thunder rolling in the distance and sand flying around their feet, there was waves crashing loudly and animals calling to each other in the distance. They stared at each other with their eyes locked. The pages in the sketchbook started flipping wildly. 

"Tweek, I think we should go before it starts pouring." He said, and Tweek nodded at him but didn't break the eye contact. Tweek's hair was whipping around messily.

Craig went to stand up, but Tweek quickly grabbed his hand. His breath caught in his throat. "Craig _wait_ \-- don't you think these clouds are interesting?" He said, and Craig smiled slightly because it was such a silly thing but he sounded so serious about it.

"Yes, definitely. Cumulonimbus clouds." He said, and he practically had to yell over the sound of everything else. He almost thought he heard the faint sound of a siren in the distance. Tweek's eyes lit up though, and his grip tightened against Craig's. "That's it. Cumulonimbus." Tweek grinned and jumped off the rock, looked at Craig once more to assure himself that he was there, and then they were running.

They were running, and running, through the forest. He could swear that his feet touched the ground less here, but he wasn't for sure. Bramble crunched beneath their feet and his calves were a little scratched but Tweek's grip was steady in his and he didn't care about anything else. The air was still electric. The magic still coursing through his veins.

_..._

Craig and Tweek had parted at the road, since they lived so close to each other, and Tweek was sitting in his bed staring at his fingers idly moving across the blanket. He didn't know what he wanted to do but he felt so _restless_ \-- like the night hadn't ended yet. There was still something flowing through him and he couldn't get it to go away, to let him calm down.

As he was pondering this, wondering what exactly it was about this place, he heard a light scratching against his window and his heart stopped.

Oh _God_. This was it, this was the end. He knew something was wrong -- that constant impending sense of doom was completely right, and he was about to die.

But it happened again, and turned into more of a rhythmic tapping than anything, so he slowly crawled out of his bed in the dark room and stealthily made his way to the window-seat. His heart started beating quickly and he grinned when he saw Craig through the window, resting on a large branch next to the window as if it was something completely natural for him.

"Wanna go on an adventure?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been listening to the kooks a lot lately. i hope this is a decent chapter, thanks for reading this far! :) honestly i don't know how i feel about this rn because i very suddenly completely rewrote this whole chapter at 1am and it was kind of ridiculous. please leave reviews bc I'd really love to know what you think!


	6. soon soon

"Wanna go on an adventure?"  

Tweek unlocked his window and swung it open quietly, stepping to the side for Craig to crawl in through. Craig climbed in and stood up directly in front of Tweek, and Tweek really hadn't noticed how tall Craig was until this moment in time.

It wasn't like they'd spent much time together yet, anyway.

They stared at each other, not saying anything, and Tweek broke the silence. "What?" He said, and Craig smirked at him which in turn made him grin back.  
"I asked if you wanted to go on an adventure." Craig said easily, and Tweek bit his lip. "I mean..that's k-kind of like, rebellious teenager behavior." Craig smiled at that and looked around Tweek's room. "Well, _yeah_." He said simply, and Tweek wondered if he sneaks out a lot, since it didn't seem to be that big of a deal to him.

"But..w-what if my parents find out, and then they don't trust me?" He whispered nervously and looked at the floor. Craig put his hand on Tweek's shoulder and stared at him.

"It'll be fine. I want to show you something."

It didn't sound very reassuring, but for some reason it immediately put Tweek at ease.

"Okay."

Craig removed his hand, which made Tweek feel sort of disconnected, and crawled out of the window. He climbed down the tree, and then stared back up at Tweek waiting for him to do the same.

" _N-no_ _way_ , I'll just go through the door." He said simply, and Craig's eyes widened but he nodded.

...

Tweek quietly climbed through the hallway, carefully trying to be as soundless as possible. He made his way down the stairs, slipped his shoes on his feet, and slowly pushed open the door. 

It creaked lightly, and the cold air breezed in past him. He scrunched his nose and looked around the house for a moment before stepping past the door frame and closing it. When he heard the click, he ran down the rickety wooden porch steps and to the backyard where Craig stood.

The moon was shining brightly -- _full_ , and everything seemed crisp. Craig was standing in front of him like a vision. 

They stood there, in silence, for a moment. Craig lowered his head a little, widened his eyes a bit, and said "Ready to go?" and Tweek felt like maybe, he could go anywhere in this moment, if this guy asked him to.

"Y-yeah." He bit his lip and said, instead of the ' _oh my god, yes, definitely_ ' that was swirling around his head. Craig smiled at him and held out a hand, and Tweek grabbed it, and he was so warm. Tweek felt dizzy, but simultaneously brimming with something he couldn't place.  

They started walking -- well, Craig started walking, and Tweek just allowed himself to be dragged along. He wasn't sure what to say, or do, until they got to the entrance of the forest and he realized he had no idea where they were going. "Um, _C-Craig_?"

"Yeah?" Craig replied, and Tweek suddenly felt that feeling again; like he was somehow becoming a part of the forest, with the vines crawling up him though it wasn't visible, the tingling in his fingertips, the burning heat of something unfamiliar filling his veins.

"W-where are we going?" He asked, and he felt Craig's fingers shift a little against his. He could swear that there was some kind of energy building up between their palms.  
"I found a place in the forest a while ago." Craig said simply, and Tweek nodded even though Craig could barely see him.

They walked through the forest, through the bramble and tall grass, with only the moon's soft glow lighting their path.

After what felt like years, but could only have been fifteen minutes, Tweek noticed a structure in the distance. It was dark -- wooden, crumbly and falling apart. But it seemed to be calling out to them, so he followed Craig and swallowed his fears.

"This is it." Craig said, when they had reached the front of the structure. It seemed to be some sort of small cabin that hadn't been used in years and years. Two windows on the front of the building remained mostly intact, which was surprising. It didn't seem like anyone had been near this place since someone was last actually inhabiting it.  
Tweek studied it for a moment -- it was small, and from what he could tell on the outside, there didn't seem to be that much on the inside of it either. But something about it felt special.

...

"Should we go inside?" Craig asked Tweek, because he actually really wanted to, but he didn't want to drag Tweek into this if he was going to have a panic attack or something.  
"Y-yeah, sure." Tweek replied, and he was biting his lip, and Craig was only a little distracted by that. "Craig?"

"Oh, yeah." Craig said and, with a little jump at the start, ran up the little steps to the front porch of the cabin and tested the doorknob. "It's locked."

Tweek walked up the steps and to one of the windows, placing his palms flat against it and pushing upwards. It slid up with some struggle, but it slid nonetheless. "We can crawl in through the w-window."

Craig smirked and looked off to the side. " _Man_ , you sure are a rebellious teenager." Tweek stuttered in reply to this, but Craig had walked up to the window and pushed himself through it before he could come up with a full reply. "Jesus," Tweek said, following and climbing through as well.

The place was damp, and dusty. It was old -- _decently_ old, and the furniture with gaudy floral patterns and bright colors showed it. Tweek bit his lip again, wondering if it was a good idea they were in here; his chest started to ache with a feeling that he couldn't place. Something like anxiety, knowing they shouldn't be here.

...

_Craig was sure they shouldn't be here._

On the outside you could only feel the energy coursing, pulsing from the house. But inside, you could feel it warping, and trying to warn you. He felt silly thinking that, but he could feel it somewhere in him. Some sort of warning.

He didn't want to scare Tweek though, so he put on a brave face and took a step further into the dark place.

The only light was from the moon, and it was hardly enough to see where he was walking, so every step was cautious and slow. "It's really dark in here." Craig stated, and Tweek hummed in response; Craig could hear the anxiety in his voice.

Craig noticed a glinting somewhere -- something shining within the cabin, but it was in the 'kitchen' area. He took a few long, careful strides towards it and coughed into the fabric of his sleeve when the dust got a little too much to handle.

A small silver ring with a green stone on it sat in a little worn porcelain dish on the counter.

Craig stared at it for a moment, but then he heard Tweek cough across the room and figured they should leave. The silence was heavy. He didn't hear anything outside actually -- not bugs, nor the wind whistling. Not even waves.

He scooped the ring into his hand and turned towards Tweek, but as he was in the process of these actions a deep humming noises reverberated throughout the cabin. Or the entire forest -- he couldn't tell. He just knew it wasn't a good noise.

...

Holy shit.

" _Craig...was that you?_ " Tweek said quietly, hanging onto some shred of hope that there wasn't a demon in this weird, lost within time building. "No." Craig said simply, and he appeared next to Tweek holding his hand out. Tweek took it easily, holding on tightly because god was he terrified.

The noise sounded like some kind of inhuman screech but like it had gone through thousands of filters to seem more like a hum, something you heard through a speaker that was a little broken.

Not natural. Not something that should be here.

Or maybe they shouldn't.

"Okay, so I think we should go." Tweek said simply, and Craig nodded. Craig unlocked the door instead of them having to separately climb through the window, which Tweek was grateful for.

Craig paused in the doorway, before opening it, and showed Tweek the ring. "I picked this up when that noise happened." Tweek marveled it -- it was gorgeous, he wasn't sure what the stone was but something about it was drawing him into it. He thought maybe he could stare at it forever.

Then he remembered that this ring seemed to have summoned a demonic voice and he wanted it like, a thousand feet away from him.

"Jesus Christ. Are you keeping it?" Tweek asked, and Craig's brows furrowed. "I don't know."

Craig pushed the door open at that, and Tweek's heart leapt. With Craig's hand tightly in his, they pushed through the doorway (not taking care to close it), and _ran_.

...

They ran for what felt like forever, and at some break in time they both stopped, heaving. Tweek could barely breath and his heart was hammering. Craig looked about the same. There was this heaviness in the air again -- they knew they needed to keep going, that they had almost reached salvation, but for some reason it was too much at this moment.

"God, do you feel that?" Craig asked, inhaling deeply. Tweek nodded. They stood there in the deep silence, staring at the ground.

The world may have stopped.

But then -- the strange compulsion to look somewhere. Like when you feel someone's eyes staring straight into you. Tweek looked and he couldn't make a single noise.  
It was almost comical -- an abnormally large, black silhouette. But it was there, He knew it saw them and it wanted something. It was standing where they had been less than five minutes ago, deep in the forest, and he could only see it through the break in the trees. There was no light back there.

How did he see it?

His eyes started watering and then he felt Craig grab his hand, and then they were running, and they didn't stop running until they reached Craig's house. They didn't stop running until they reached Craig's bedroom, where they both collapsed on the floor in a messy pile of sweat and fear and exhaustion, and they fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it has been soooooo long :'(. life has been crazy and then i lost my writing inspiration. sorry this isn't the best chapter, it's really me trying to get my inspiration for this fic back. thanks for reading, please leave reviews!


	7. warmth

When they woke the next morning -- well, Craig woke up first, and as his eyes adjusted to the faint light in the room, he panicked. "Tweek. _Tweek_." He whispered, shaking the boy next to him. "Holy shit. _Wake_ _up_."

Tweek's eyes opened very slowly, and he immediately felt nauseous with the thoughts that ran through his head. Yesterday -- something in the forest. What was in the forest? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember. His brain was cycling through everything but every time he tried to think of what he had seen, he felt the contents of his stomach shifting and the images in his mind came to a blank. He finally caught up with himself and focused his eyes on Craig, who looked so pale that Tweek knew his thoughts must be similar. "I can't _remember_ , Craig." Tweek whispered quietly, and he felt the words float through the air, heavy around them. Craig looked at Tweek, crestfallen, and quietly whispered back " _Me neither_."

Tweek moved ever so slightly, and his arm came into contact with Craig. The sudden contact of skin made him shiver. "I have to get home before my parents realize that I'm not there."

"I'll-- I'll come with you." Craig said, and he looked pained, or guilty. If he hadn't brought Tweek with him yesterday..he couldn't think about it.

...

They reached the front porch and Tweek slowly, cautiously walked up to the front door. He turned the handle. It was locked.

"It's l-locked." Tweek said, and he felt strange -- the feeling that he was being watched was so close to him, he could almost feel it, but he knew that he wasn't. But did he know? Was this his usual paranoia? What was happening?

Craig said something, whatever it was clipped at the end. Tweek tore his eyes off of his hand on the doorknob and turned back to Craig. "We should go to the beach." Tweek said.

"What?" Craig said, eyebrows lifted. "If we go to the beach, then we can j-just say that we went out really early to hangout there." Tweek explained, and Craig thought about it for a moment.

"Fine." Craig nodded, and off they went. The sound of their shoes hitting the pavement seemed to echo throughout the still town, and Tweek made a note of how eerie the town was in the morning. "Weird, huh." Craig said simply, capturing Tweek's thought with a single word -- he nodded.

They walked, and listened. Birds, the waves, the wind rustling the trees, their breathing quiet in the world.  
He was thinking about his mom, his future sibling, this new place and the people he's met. He wasn't quite sure he understood what the universe was trying to tell him. To show him.

"It's like -- what we saw was the town as a... _being_ , almost." Craig said quietly, thinking deeply about something.

"W-what?"

"Last night, I mean. I was thinking. Whatever we saw. That was one of my thoughts about it."

"Like...what w-we saw was what the town really _is?_ " Tweek inquired, and Craig seemed to think about this for another moment.

"Kinda. Maybe it's more complicated than that though."

Tweek hummed in response, and they continued walking. They walked across the rickety wooden bridge that led to the beach and it was solid beneath his feet, even though the creaking noises it made caused his heart to beat a little quicker.

They got to the beach, and Tweek kicked his sandals off. Just as their feet made contact with the sand, it started to rain.  
"It's raining." Craig said, and Tweek grinned. "Y-yeah."

It started off lightly, and Tweek spun around in it. Craig watched from a distance, amused.  
"I think it's getting heavier." Craig said, and Tweek stopped and stared at him. in that moment, the rain came down in heavy waves, and you could hardly see anything in the distance. Tweek yelped and ran towards where he had seen Craig. Their shoulders slammed in the panic of trying to get to each other. "Fuck!" Craig yelled and Tweek's eyes widened. "O-oh my god, _sorry_ , jesus christ--" Craig started laughing, which cut off Tweek's apology-ramble, and then they were both laughing in the rain. The waves. Sand on their feet. The strangest feelings.

...

The rain had let off, and the sun broke through. It warmed their skin. They sat on the beach, side by side, shoulders nearly touching. Tweek pulled his knees up to his chest and Craig had his legs stretched out. "I guess w-we should go home now." Tweek said. Craig stared into the sky, squinting at the shapes of the clouds.

"I guess."

...

Tweek walked home and the door was unlocked, which meant his dad had probably left to continue the work he was doing on their coffee shop. It was coming along nicely, apparently, but he hadn't gotten the chance to go see it yet. He thought maybe he'd do that today.

"Mama?" Tweek said, hearing noises in the kitchen. "Yeah!" She replied.

"How do you feel?" Tweek asked as he made his way into the kitchen. She was stirring something into her coffee. "I'm fine, baby. What about you? You went out this morning." She said, trying not to sound too curious.

"Yeah. I was at the beach." He lifted himself up onto the counter and sat there. "It rained. It was nice."

"I heard the rain, I thought it was very refreshing." She smiled lightly and tapped the spoon onto the rim of the cup. "Any plans for today?"

"I thought maybe I'd check out t-the coffee shop." Tweek said, and his mother's eyes lit up.

"Oh my goodness what a _wonderful_ idea! Your father would love that." She said, and she seemed to get lost in her thoughts. He slipped off the counter and walked to his room.

...

"So, I was thinking about how I could improve them, and she said there was too much salt." Bebe was talking with Tweek as they walked down the road, towards his parent's coffee shop. He had taken a shower at home, gotten dressed, and went out the door planning on having a silent walk by himself. Bebe walked out of her house just as he was passing it and ran up to him, and she'd been telling him about her friend named Wendy and some cookies that she'd made the other day since.

"What'd you do with the rest of the cookies?" Tweek asked, and Bebe stuck her tongue out a little. He thought it was a cute habit that she seemed to do a lot when she was thinking. "I still have them! If you don't mind the whole too-salty thing I'll totally bring some over." Her eyes lit up suddenly. "We can make some cookies together! Do you like to bake?"  
"Sure." He replied simply, and she did a little dance. He grinned. "Give me your phone." Bebe said, and Tweek pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over. She fumbled with it a little and then handed it back. "My number is in there. Text me when you get home so we can plan our baking adventure." She said and shook her hair out of her face. "A-alright."

She waved and he watched as she went back the way they came. "Alright." He repeated.

...

He was so tired. He was _exhausted_ , and he couldn't get his thoughts in order. He had notes in front of him, three blue perfectly lined up sticky notes. They had various things scrawled on them, and on the note in the center was a doodle of a ring. He knew he'd seen it, but now he couldn't find it.

Craig sighed heavily for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"This doesn't make fuckin' sense."

He squinted, in the fluorescent light of his lamp, at the things in front of him. 

Note #1 had Craig's surprisingly neat handwriting, and it said:  
_town enigma_

Note #2, in a slightly messier writing [things he thought were perhaps related to this happening]:  
_not_ _alone_ , _cabin_ , _forest_ _at night_ , _[drawing of ring]_

Note #3, simply had written --:  
_tweek_

He checked his phone, and as it lit up his face in a blue-ish light, it told him that it was nearing midnight. He very abruptly pushed his chair back, stood up, and groaned.

"Alright!" He finally yelled, exasperated, but then added a slightly more defeated; "Alright."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok y'all so i had this written like months ago and i completely forgot about it so i'm posting it after fixing a few things but i honestly don't know if i messed anything up and it's late so i apologize. i love u thank u for reading


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